Healing What is Broken
by hp4evr123
Summary: Paul finds a young, injured girl in the woods of La Push that is unable to communicate with anyone...at all. Her strange behavior and abilities leave the Cullens and packs floundering for answers while her past haunts her and her present unsettles her. Paul and Seth find themselves at odds when the girl takes to Paul but is imprinted on by Seth.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, this first chapter is a doozy, but the subsequent chapters hopefully won't be nearly as long.**

**Essentially, this story is mainly mystery, so I won't be very forthcoming with information...I want almost all of this to become a surprise.**

**Background info: All the events of the Twilight Saga happened, including those in Breaking Dawn. There is some Vampire Diaries mythology, but you do not need any knowledge of the show in order to enjoy this story. If you have questions pertaining to the other vampire mythology, I would be happy to answer in review responses/PMs.**

**Let me know what you think! This has been sitting on the computer for a while, gathering dust, so...here goes nothing...**

Dirt caked my hands. What had once been mud was now dried and crusty brown dirt, under my nails and in the creases of my palms. It mingled with the blood on my hands from continuously staunching the wound on my shoulder. My t-shirt hung over me in tatters, ripped from the branches of trees and bushes I had thrown myself through in the forest. I had red scratches in line with the rips, letting the cold air whip in and cover my skin in iciness.

My breath came hard and heavy through my numb, cold-cracked lips. I stopped running for a moment to rest against a tree, and ended up sitting down for a minute. I had lost track of how long I had been running from them, but I knew it had been a long time, and that the sun had disappeared twice already. Under the cover of the night, I was able to walk and gather berries to eat, but I wasn't far enough from home yet to really allow myself a break. I had hitch-hiked for four days across the country, but they had found me too soon, so I had gone on foot from Portland.

My thoughts, a jumbled mess, created a dull roar in my head as I rested against the tree. My shoulder became painful and stiff, but the rest of my body felt limp and noodle-like from exhaustion. I slumped further against the ground and tree, and couldn't control my eyes as they gently drifted shut.

Soft falling footsteps woke me suddenly, and my eyes cracked open slowly to find a pair of dark, tan legs. A tall, Native American man stared down at me, wearing only a pair of cutoff shorts. I attempted to move, to scoot back further into my tree, away from the tall man, but he merely squatted down to my level and looked at me closely.

"Are you okay?" he asked me softly. I didn't answer him. He sniffed the air delicately, and, amazingly, looked directly at the wound on my shoulder. He could smell my blood even a few feet away. He extended a hand to me as he continued to look at my arm, concerned. It was a grisly sight, I knew, but I had stopped feeling the pain and thinking it looked strange days ago. "Come with me," he persuaded me gently. "I'll help you."

When I didn't move, the man inched forward and reached out to me with both arms. I watched him warily, but he finally just scooped me up tenderly into his arms. His chest, his arms, his entire body, was suddenly hot, fire, burning my skin. Where his skin touched mine, the icy coldness seeped away. Where his skin met my clothes, the aching cold disappeared. I felt my cheeks flushing from the sudden heat all over my body. The man kept looking down at me, watching my face and my shoulder as he jogged through the trees.

A long howl pierced the air; I startled in his arms and looked about wildly.

"Shh," he said in comfort as he slowed. The tree line neared, and he walked us into cloudy sunshine. I looked around to see a small clearing, what looked to be a yard, as well as a cottage-style house. The man walked right over to the open front door and through the entrance to set me down gently at a kitchen table. "Emily!" he called.

"What is it, Paul?" a girl answered as she walked in. Her pretty, bright face was marred by three long scars that looked to extend down her body and arm, ending at her hand. She looked at me, then my shoulder, and gasped softly. "Oh."

"Can we get some bandages and then bring her over to the Cullens'?" Paul, my rescuer, asked. Emily nodded hurriedly and bustled around the kitchen to grab long, beige ace bandages. She wrapped my upper arm and shoulder quickly and instructed Paul to find a sweatshirt for me to wear, because my skin was apparently cold to the touch. "She's been sleeping in the forest for who knows how long," Paul muttered softly as he grabbed a sweatshirt from a pile of clothes near the door. He smiled at me gently as he offered me the article of clothing. "It's okay," he explained. "It's mine."

When I made no move to take it, Paul shook his head with a small, amused smile, and dressed me in it tenderly. The warm fabric around me made me feel safe and warm, especially near Paul.

"There," Emily said with a smile as she hung up the phone. "Carlisle is expecting you, Paul. He said to bring her right over." Emily walked over and sat down on the chair beside me. She pushed my tangled hair back from my face and looked deep into my eyes. "Who are you?" she asked me softly. I looked at her blankly, giving the illusion that I was deaf and dumb. Her kind dark eyes probed mine, searching, and I knew that she wasn't fooled by my performance.

I reached out, tentatively, and stopped my dirty fingers just an inch from her face, cautious and not wanting to offend. When she didn't pull away, I touched the very tips of my fingers to her scars with the lightest breath of a touch. I couldn't hold in the gasp I felt when I saw the image of her scarring, and the wolf that had given it to her. When the image was chased away by the face of a man, I pulled my mind from Emily's as I looked into her dark eyes. She stared at me, confused as to what had happened. She had felt the barest of brushes against her mind, and I watched her for a second before I spread my fingers gingerly.

I touched three of my fingers to her three scars softly, and started at her hairline. I let my fingers drift downwards, following the lines of her scars, to the bottom of her chin. From there, I cupped her cheek in my palm as Paul and I watched the scars slowly disappear, melting into Emily's caramel skin.

Paul gaped at Emily, and when I looked back at him, searching his eyes for approval, he stared at me in shock.

"Paul?" Emily asked quietly. "What's wrong?"

"Your-your face," he gasped. Emily offered him a puzzled look before she pattered over to a mirror on the wall. She looked, and gasped herself. She looked back at me, rushed over, and took my dirty hands in both of hers. All that remained of the scars that had marred her body for years were the smudges of dirt that I had left on her cheek from my hands.

Emily kissed my forehead and grabbed my shoulder tightly. I let out a gasp of pain, and she looked down, horrified that she had grabbed my tender injury.

"Paul, take her to Carlisle, now," Emily told him softly. Paul looked at me and offered his arms. I reached up as best as I could, letting him know that it was okay to pick me up. He scooped me up carefully, mindful of my injured shoulder, and set out for the woods once more.

Howls filled the air in the woods, vibrating the musical coils all around us. Paul jogged and then ran at a steady pace, hopping over rocks and bushes with the grace of a mountain goat. He slowed when we seemed to have reached our destination, and he picked his way through the underbrush carefully before we arrived in another meadow-like lawn. This one was much bigger, and was home to a huge, three-story white house. Beyond Paul's measured, even breaths; I heard a river bubbling nearby.

Paul walked up to the front porch just as the door swung open and a pale man with blonde hair and bright golden eyes stepped out.

"Paul," the man said softly. Paul shifted me higher in his arms, seeming to present me before he cradled me back into my original position.

"Dr. Cullen, I found her in the woods," Paul told the man softly. Dr. Cullen sniffed the air delicately before his eyes landed on my shoulder. He nodded.

"Why don't you come inside and put her down. I have some medical supplies," Dr. Cullen said softly. He smiled at me, and the minimal sun glinted off of his hunter's teeth menacingly. Without warning, I began to tremble in Paul's arms.

"Hey, it's okay," Paul whispered as he stepped up on the porch and inside the house. "Dr. Cullen's going to fix you up in no time!"

I glared at Paul doubtfully, and he chuckled as he settled me on the sofa carefully. Thankfully, the sofa was gray, so I wouldn't mark it up too badly with all the dirt that covered my body.

Paul straightened to stand and walk off, but my hand shot out to his and pulled as hard as I could. The movement didn't seem to call Paul to return to me, but the sensation of our connected hands did. As we met, palm to palm, Paul had the delight of glimpsing my mind for the briefest of seconds, and learned my name.

"Alright," Dr. Cullen said as he entered the room with a small black medical bag. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Seraphina," Paul answered him directly. Dr. Cullen looked at him, smiled slightly, and looked back at me as he pulled on a pair of white gloves.

"Can you take that sweatshirt off, Seraphina?" he asked me. I dropped Paul's hand and began to wrestle with the comfy sweatshirt. Paul came to my aid around his shock and lifted the clothing from over my head before he tossed it to the side. Dr. Cullen removed the carefully wrapped ace bandage methodically and examined my arm with the utmost care.

"What is it?" Paul asked while the doctor continued to examine my arm, wrinkling his nose in the process.

"It seems to be a bite mark," Dr. Cullen answered Paul tentatively. His golden eyes glanced up at mine. "A human one."

My eyes hovered on Dr. Cullen's for a brief moment before I turned away and looked out the huge, floor-to-ceiling windows. To my surprise, I saw four people walking towards the house-a man and woman, holding hands and smiling, a younger looking girl, maybe my age, and a tall, Native American man that looked somewhat similar to Paul in build.

I bit my bottom lip and worried it between my teeth as Dr. Cullen and Paul both paused from a whispered conversation to look up at the arrival of the others.

"Grandpa!" the girl trilled as she rushed over. She stopped three feet away in the middle of a breath and stared at my arm. Her eyes roved over my upper arm, shoulder, and moved to my face, where she stopped and stared at me for a long while.

"Renesmee," Dr. Cullen said with a gentle voice. "This is Seraphina. Seraphina, this is my granddaughter, Renesmee, her parents, Edward and Bella, and her friend Jacob."

"It's nice to meet you," Renesmee said with a bright, dazzling smile. Her perfectly straight white teeth gleamed under the soft lighting in the living room, and she reached over to shake my hand.

Everything happened very quickly. Renesmee touched my hand, and with her skin meeting mine, I instantly saw pictures flashing across my eyelids, all of Renesmee and her life. Faces and places zoomed by so quickly that merely seconds passed by. At the same time, Renesmee was privy to the last few days of my life, beginning with my running from _them_ and ending with Paul finding me in the woods.

"Are you okay?" Edward asked as he stepped closer to Dr. Cullen and Renesmee and me. His eyes followed Renesmee as she turned her head to look at him as she dropped my hand.

"Dad…" she hedged quietly.

"I know," he said softly, his eyes locked on mine. "I saw through you."

"Edward, what is it?" Bella asked. Edward glanced at her before looking back at me.

"Who are you?" he asked me. My lips remained closed; Dr. Cullen's grip on my upper arm and shoulder tightened as he cleaned the wound with rubbing alcohol. I flinched and twisted away from the burning sensation.

"It's okay," Dr. Cullen told me softly as he pulled the burning cloth from my arm. "The painful part is over. It's alright; I'm just going to bandage it now, okay? Now it won't get infected."

I let out a breath quietly when Dr. Cullen finally pulled away from me and released my arm and shoulder. The large bandage he had placed over the bite mark was like an oversized Band-Aid, and I felt along its edges with my fingertips to avoid the piercing stare of Edward.

"What else is wrong with her?" Edward asked Paul directly. Paul looked down at me, and I pressed my lips together tightly as I looked up at him from the sofa. He hesitated.

"She can't speak," he stated. He shook his head in confusion, his eyes never leaving mine. "Or won't, I don't know." At his words, Edward crouched down in front of me and looked into my eyes, hypnotizing me with his large gold irises. I gazed at him, waiting for him to speak.

He looked down at my dirt-covered hands that had splatters of blood over red-tinged palms. With his broken stare, I had the opportunity to look at his features. He was good-looking, but diamond-hard. Everything about him had a frozen, crystalline appearance. Up close, I could see that his skin had a slight shimmer to it. Edward looked back up at me, reaching for my hands with his slowly, asking for permission with his eyes. My eyebrows arched delicately as I gave him a 'have at it' look, and he took my hands tenderly into his own.

I could feel his mind straining as soon as our skin met. _Mind reader_, my fingers itched. Walls that I had built up over time slowly fell down to let him inside, so that he could see. As our minds met in the middle, much as our hands had, Edward and I locked eyes, and he began to see my thoughts in the present.

Edward read my reactions slowly, becoming accustomed to my sensitive sense of touch and taste. Everything around me was foreign, alien, different. As he saw my thoughts, he began to feel my emotions tumbling through. Fear, sharp and razor-fine; pain, dull and concentrated in small doses over my body; and the serenity that came with the knowledge of Paul behind me, from Paul finding me. I mused over Paul's protection quietly in my head, reliving his discovery of me, cold and alone in the forest, hungry and desolate. Edward's brow furrowed.

"Bella, get her something to eat," he told her absently without breaking contact with my hands. He looked back at me, but with his speaking, the spell was broken, and my walls had gone back up to shut him out. Edward sighed as he stood and patted my head absently and stroked my hair almost without thought.

Bella brought a small plate back to me with an assortment of toast, cereal, fruit, and meat. I chose an apple carefully and ran my fingers over it before biting into the flesh of it. Renesmee sat down beside me as Dr. Cullen stood up, and she watched me eat with a quiet fascination.

"Can I call you Sera?" she asked me when I had finished. I looked at her, my eyes wide, and nodded tentatively. "Why won't you speak?" she questioned.

My fingers found my throat as I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

"Do you know how?" Renesmee persisted. She touched my cheek. _This is how I communicate. Are you like me?_

I watched her, frustrated by my lack of communication. My fingers itched, wanting to show her, wanting to speak, wanting to communicate to her.

I looked down at my dirty hands hopelessly and pressed my fingers to my eyes to hold back my tears.

"Hey, guys, why the conference?" an amiable voice came from the rear of the house. Everyone turned and smiled at the newcomer-or newcomers. Another Native American man and a Native American woman walked in with a smile and a scowl, respectively.

"Paul found this girl in the woods on patrol," Jacob told the newcomers. The two newcomers glanced at me, but I looked away quickly.

"Cool," the man said genuinely. "What's her story?"

"Her name is Seraphina," Paul answered him. His voice was the most animated I had heard him thus far, and I looked over to glance at his face cursorily. The smile there was contagious, but I held back my own. Paul looked down at me, and I looked up at him serenely. "I found her alone in the woods."

"Hi, Seraphina. I'm Seth, this is my sister, Leah," the man said. A large hand swam into my vision, so I took it tentatively to shake.

Pull.

As our hands connected, a spark shot through my arm and up into my chest. I focused on our joined hands, watching my pale one being taken in by his large, tan one, and how the muscles on his forearm rippled effortlessly while shaking gently. Magic flowed freely between us, giving me a breath of pretty air I hadn't felt in years. As the magic tugged on me, pulling me towards this stranger named Seth; it urged me to look up into his face. I couldn't shake the feeling that as soon as I looked up, everything was going to change completely. I fought my yearning eyes for what felt like years but was really only seconds. Finally, I caved, and my eyes opened up to meet his.

Warm, dark brown eyes met mine, swimming with a happy sunshine. An inner light, a flame, blazed behind the large irises, showing a man full of passion. His hand, suddenly hot in my own, warmed my cold skin. Something changed inside of him as he looked at me, his hand suddenly gripped mine a little tighter, making the hold slightly painful, but not unbearable.

Seth's face flashed in my mind, alerting me to his importance repeatedly as I had double vision: the real Seth, and the one being catalogued in my mind as I stared at him, eyes wide, mouth shut, cheeks flushed.

Without warning, he was suddenly yanked into my mind, where he was given free reign. My walls crumbled to dust, letting him in more completely than anyone before. I had no secrets from this stranger Seth, everything that had been mine was now his, too. I felt our souls twining together, in some distant part of our bodies, our lives wrapping around each other and twirling and twisting to make inseparable knots.

When I broke the hold he had on my hand, he shook his head in confusion and snapped back into his own mind. My fragmented walls would not rebuild by themselves, and so I set to work manually putting them back up.

"What was that?" Seth asked me quietly, crouching down to my level to look into my eyes. I was still trying to rebuild my walls hurriedly, to keep Edward out, but he picked through my mind easily.

"Um, you imprinted, Seth. And Seraphina…her mind just, well, exploded, a little bit." He squinted at me, trying to get a read on my thoughts, but there was a fog swirling in my head, redirecting him constantly. He rubbed his temples. "Would you stop that, please?" he asked. I looked up at him and let out a breath and settled my mind quietly. Edward breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," he told me sincerely.

He sat beside me, on the opposite side of Renesmee, and held his hand out to mine, asking for permission to touch me. I curled my hands into my lap and squeezed them between my dirty, bruised legs. Edward took this in-stride, and I felt a gentle poking around as he sifted through my present thoughts carefully. I could tell that he didn't mean to be intrusive, and he was only trying to get answers, but I resented the invasion all the same, and he stopped quickly when he realized how uncomfortable he was making me.

"She doesn't like when I try to read her thoughts. Her mind is very foggy right now, I'm sure she's confused as well. It seems as though she can't speak or make a sound due to the same person who gave her that…wound," he said, avoiding the word 'bite'.

"Who…who did that to you?" Seth asked me, nodding at my shoulder. I touched the bandage absently, my arm still seemed to reflex into place to staunch the nonexistent bleeding. I opened my mouth to answer him compulsively before shutting it when I realized that I couldn't speak. My teeth made a small audible clicking sound as my jaw snapped shut, and I let out a breath, frustrated once more.

"Could you…draw it?" Edward asked, grasping at straws. I mulled it over in my mind as Edward ran off at a speed that wasn't human to gather supplies for me. He returned with a sketch pad and some drawing pencils and settled them gently on my lap. I took one carefully in my hand, and pictured the man that had held me captive.

His face jumped into my mind before I could hold the image back, though it was blocked to Edward through my subconscious of trying to keep the secret. I saw his face as it was when he had bitten me, a snarling mask of horror, complete with the protruding veins and red eyes and fangs of a typical vampire. As I sketched, I pulled my knees up to give myself a sturdy surface to draw on, thus hiding my picture from those around me.

My sketch didn't take long before it was lifelike; staring at me in anger from the page before me, nearly exact as his face could get. I sketched out his name in the ancient language he had taught it to me in, and then showed it to Edward.

Edward's brow furrowed in confusion as his sharp eyes perused my rendition of the man that had held me captive. He finally looked up at me and pointed to the fangs.

"Is this man supposed to be a vampire?" he asked.

A brief moment of clarity in my mind, a lesson that had been pounded in with absoluteness, surfaced to offer Edward his answer.

_Original. Hybrid._

Two incomplete phrases that meant everything that the man was and would be.

"How is that possible?" Edward breathed. My mind, though, was hazy once more. My attention wandered to Renesmee, still beside me, and her inquisitive brown eyes. My fingers lightly traced the back of her hand, and when I looked up, she was smiling at me. I pointed at an arrangement of flowers from across the room. Renesmee cocked her head to the side, confused, as I stood and crossed to it.

The flowers, though beautiful, were a few days old and wilting. One in particular had turned an unfortunate shade of pale brown, a tragedy from its original brilliant cream. I plucked the wilted flower from the vase and returned to sit between Renesmee and Edward and presented the flower to her.

"It's pretty," she agreed. She frowned. "But dead."

My lips twitched in amusement, and I felt that I had all but Edward and Dr. Cullen's attention at the moment. I remained turned to Renesmee, though, and held the flower by the middle of the stem before her. I focused in my hazy mind, focusing on the warmth in my fingertips, in my chest, and channeled it through the tips of my fingers and into the flower in one small, short burst.

The flower, brown and wilted, burst forth in full bloom, cream and green and beautiful and returned to its former glory. Renesmee's eyes were wide as saucers, her mouth open in a slight gape of startled surprise. I heard shuffling behind me, alerting me to the shock of the others, and Paul's voice, booming but soothing, explaining.

"She healed Emily's scars too. It's apparently a thing she can do," he told them with forced nonchalance.

Renesmee's face contorted with delight, and she raced across the room to bring me another wilted flower.

"Again," she persisted with a bright smile.

I took the flower from her obediently, though this time was much easier; the magic was already bursting from my fingertips the second I took it from her. The flower, a pretty pink tulip, sprouted back up with no trouble at all. My lips twitched in amusement as Renesmee clapped in delight. She picked another from the vase, but someone's voice halted her in giving it to me.

"Ness," Jacob said softly. Renesmee and I both turned to look at him. He shook his head once. "No more."

"Why not?" she asked clearly. It was Edward who answered her.

"Because we don't know what this is," he stated calmly as he took the restored flowers from her hands. I looked at him, waiting for him to yell at me or treat me differently. Instead, however, he returned the flowers to their vase and offered me his palm. I looked at it and then pointedly ignored it as I pointed back at my picture, which now rested in Dr. Cullen's lap.

"Seraphina," Dr. Cullen began cautiously. He turned the sketch back to my view. I was sure that by now, everyone had seen the picture of my captor. "What is this at the bottom? A name?" he asked. My eyes widened as I nodded-just barely-to the kind doctor. "It looks like…Viking script?" he hedged. Again, I offered a forced, tentative nod. "We'll have Jasper translate this when he returns. In the meantime, why don't we get Seraphina some clothes and a hot bath? She looks exhausted," Dr. Cullen stated. Everyone glanced at me and seemed to agree. I knew I must have looked a mess, so I accepted when Bella extended her hand to me.

Bella led me upstairs, to an expansive bathroom, and started the shower. She slipped from the door to grab me a washcloth and towel, and then left me to myself in the bathroom.

I took a long, hot shower, feeling the dirt rub off of me under the scented soap and soft washcloth. After washing my hair thoroughly, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself tightly in the towel Bella had left for me.

No clothes. I opened the bathroom door tentatively and stepped out into the deserted, quiet hallway. Voices trailed up from downstairs, and I followed them back down to the first floor. Edward and Dr. Cullen were hunched over my sketch while Paul, Seth, Jacob and Leah were in a small huddle in the far corner, talking quietly. Everyone looked up when I stepped into the room, and Edward looked embarrassed.

"Ah, Renesmee and Bella went to the cottage to get you some clothes. They should be back any minute now," Edward told me softly. I looked at him, my eyes wide, and tried to nod. The motion didn't execute as I planned; my head didn't move at all. Edward's brow furrowed as he read my thoughts, understanding. He held up the sketch. "This man…he's a vampire."

I was unable to nod to confirm Edward's statement, but he didn't seem to need my confirmation.

"Carlisle remembers another type of vampire that he encountered a couple centuries ago," Edward hedged quietly. I listened to him with what I hoped was a patient expression on my face. It didn't matter to me that the family I had stumbled upon were vampires; it was more of the same for me.

"Wait, there are other vampires?" Jacob demanded as the small huddle broke up a little so that they could all see Edward. Edward hesitated.

"Yes," he finally said quietly. "According to the legends Carlisle remembers, we are a genetic mutation of the original vampires caused by a disease and a spell from a witch in the third century. It resulted in a second race of vampires."

"How are they different from you?" Jacob asked. He was shaking.

"They look human," Carlisle stated quietly. He handed Jacob the picture I had drawn. "Until they hunger." Jacob and the others hovered over the picture for a while, studying the face I had drawn. Edward glanced at the back of the house just as I heard the glass door opening. Renesmee skipped in, holding a bundle of clothes in her arms. She smiled at me and presented them to me. I took them from her and hurried up the stairs back to the bathroom.

I changed into the comfortable clothes quickly. They were nothing special; a pair of Victoria's Secret yoga pants and a cami, plus Paul's sweatshirt from earlier had been cleaned for me. I slipped that on and then carried my used towel and facecloth downstairs. A woman took them from me and disappeared, when she returned, I learned that she was Carlisle's wife Esme.


	2. Chapter 2

Time passed slowly. Renesmee spent her days being tutored by her aunts, uncles, and parents, and I learned with her. The Cullens were some of the gentlest vampires I had ever been around, despite their indestructibility. Paul, though not a part of Jacob's pack, was around me constantly. I stayed with him in his little house in La Push, and we drove over to the Cullens' every day for me to spend time with Ness.

"You know," Renesmee said when I walked in with Paul on the tenth morning of my stay. "You could just spend the night here and not make Paul go through all the trouble." I looked up at Paul and hesitated as I began to pull away from him. I hated to be an inconvenience to him. He smiled at Renesmee.

"She's no trouble, Ness. I like having her around," Paul told her easily. He planted a kiss on the top of my head after pulling me into a hug. "I'll be back before sunset." Paul left the house and his car and shifted at the tree line before taking back off for La Push. Renesmee scooted close to me on the sofa.

"No lessons today. Everyone's hunting, so Jacob, Leah, Seth and Embry are swinging by for a while," Renesmee told me with a smile. I watched her silently. "Sera, I want to ask you something," she said softly. I waited patiently, schooling my expression into one of interest. Renesmee took a deep breath and sighed before looking directly into my eyes and speaking. "I know that you're…living with Paul. How serious are you and he? How come you don't spend time with Seth when he's the one that imprinted on you?"

I watched Renesmee for a long while before I offered my palm to her tentatively. Renesmee looked at it with equal trepidation. My control over my communication had been sporadic at best, destructive at worst. The last time Edward had tried communicating with me, he and I both ended up with headaches and didn't look at each other for hours afterwards. Renesmee seemed to steel herself as she gently placed her hand over mine. I dimly registered the front door opening and Jacob's pack walking in just in time to see Renesmee and I begin to communicate.

Renesmee was pulled into my mind delicately and gracefully, and met me halfway. It seemed to take a minute for her to accustom herself while I remembered brokenly my impression of Seth. The intensity of our touch, the vulnerability of my mind, the fear of my walls crumbling down again to leave me defenseless-my deepest fears were focused into one person: Seth. Paul, however, made me feel safest. He had found me in the forest, scared and alone, took me to get my injury treated, took me in under his own roof, and cared for me since. Paul was the steady rock that I desperately needed; he never pried or demanded answers from me, which Seth seemed prone to do whenever I was around. Seth had the annoying habit of asking Edward or Renesmee how I was feeling, and even asked Paul if he was around. His concern drove me to insanity, and he gravitated towards me unconsciously. The way he moved around me: like a satellite, or a magnet, made me uncomfortable and terrified of a repeat of our first touch.

"You're scared of him," Renesmee realized when she pulled out of my mind and took her palm from mine. I watched her for a long time, waiting for her to speak more. I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. "Paul saved you, so you put him on some kind of pedestal," she concluded softly. I couldn't even argue with her; she was right. "And with Seth…you're scared that he's going to touch you again and make your brain go fuzzy. You're scared because he makes you vulnerable!" she decided. I watched her silently, impressed with her deductions. It was more than I had gotten from my own feelings.

"Nessie?" Jacob asked when he and the others made their way closer to the sofa. I stood and went directly to the kitchen to grab food. I knew that the wolves would be hungry, despite the food smelling like vampire.

I felt Seth before I saw him. His presence was a constant when I was alone or in the Cullen house.

"Do you need some help?" he asked tentatively. It was the first time he had spoken to me in five days. Usually, he followed me around silently like some kind of warm, wolfy ghost.

I turned and looked at Seth, offering him what I knew to be a plain expression. I would leave my answer open to his interpretation. He swallowed anxiously and watched me from his stance near the door to the living room.

Seth cautiously tip-toed across the kitchen to get plates down from the cabinets. He pulled out silverware from a drawer and placed them all near the stove where I was working. Seth was careful not to get within three feet of me, of which I was thankful. When I served the plates, I offered him one carefully, pushing my arm out as far as it would go from my body. I regarded Seth with a blank, emotionless stare, warning him off. He took the plate and backed away while I grabbed the three for Leah, Embry and Jacob and brought them into the living room.

They took the plates from me and dug in immediately. Seth settled in beside Leah on the floor. I sat back down next to Renesmee. She smiled at me as she stroked Jacob's hair from where he sat in front of her, chowing down on eggs and toast and bacon. I watched the wolves eat for a minute before I reached over to grab my sketchpad, flipped the page with Klaus's picture over, and began to draw a new one.

I scratched the back of my neck absently as I drew solemnly. I tucked my knees up to my chest and used them to balance the sketch pad as I worked over it for a while. The wolves had long finished eating by the time I had somewhat finished my picture. It was rough, not as polished as I would have liked, but it made sense to me, and I knew that Renesmee would appreciate it.

"What's that?" Renesmee asked as I continued to cock my head and examine my drawing critically. I sighed silently and turned my drawing to face Renesmee's inspection. Her soft gasp let me know immediately that it was good.

I had done my best to capture her long, shiny ringlets, bright, shining brown eyes, pretty pale skin, blushed cheeks, and slim frame. In my rendition, her head was crowned with the flowers I had brought back to life the first day we had met, and she was barefoot, surrounded by trees.

"It's beautiful," Renesmee told me proudly as she gazed at my work. She looked up at me, her eyes shining with a bright happiness. "Can I keep it?" I blinked at her silently, allowing her to decide for herself. She smiled and gently tore up the page from the book. "I'll keep it," she decided with a grin. "Look, Jake! Sera drew me! Didn't she do a good job? It looks just like me!" Renesmee crowed proudly. Jacob took the picture from her and nodded slowly.

"It looks fantastic, Seraphina," he told me warmly with a smile. I didn't know why he was so nice to me, with my always giving Seth the brush-off, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with my close, almost sister-like friendship with Renesmee.

"That's actually really good," Leah said from over Jacob's shoulder. She pointed at it tentatively, and looked at Renesmee. "Can I look at it?" she hedged softly. Renesmee's eyes widened slightly with her request, but she nodded quickly. Leah took the paper gently from Jacob and studied it carefully.

I stood from the sofa, feeling too confined in the warm house with the warm wolves and Renesmee's warm body so close to mine. I walked over to the front door and opened it, but hesitated before stepping out into the brisk winter sunshine. I glanced back, my gaze finding Seth's easily, as he was tuned into whatever I did with that damned satellite intensity. I waited in the doorway for what felt like ages before Renesmee giggled softly.

"She wants you to follow her, Seth," she explained gently. I threw Renesmee a thankful glance as Seth blushed bright red to the tips of his black hair.

"Oh," he stated quietly as he unfolded his huge body and lumbered to his feet and the door where I stood. I had never noticed just how much bigger than me the wolves were until Seth was towering over my 5'3" frame easily as a hulking, muscle mass with a tan and shiny white teeth. Paul, I knew, was just as huge, but he seemed more cuddly and teddy-bear like, since I slept beside him every night. Seth hesitated as I held the door open, and took it from me, allowing me to pass through first. I stepped out into the sunshine and headed straight for the cold, dead grass outside of the Cullens' mansion.

I folded myself gently into the crunchy brown grass, and watched Seth until he folded himself in a similar way across from me. We stared at each other in silence for a long time before I sighed lightly and lay out on the grass to look up at the pretty blue and white sky.

"It's peaceful out here," Seth murmured as he watched me. I tore my eyes away from the fluffy clouds to look at him. His eyes were on me, and his expression was calm. I offered him a peaceful look in return, and waited patiently. I could tell Seth knew that I was waiting for something, but for what, he couldn't tell. Tentatively, I patted the dry grass about a foot away from me, and Seth's eyes shone brightly as he scooted to where I had patted. He gingerly stretched out beside me on the grass until we were both staring up at the same white-speckled blue sky.

We lost track of time. After an age of looking at the sky, we both sat up. My hair was rumpled, full of broken pieces of crunchy brown grass, and I combed my fingers through my dark locks carefully, searching out the offending pieces. Seth watched me silently.

When I finished with that, I moved so that I was kneeling in front of Seth as he sat in front of me, his torso turned to me while his legs sprawled to the side. Tentatively, I began to reach for his cheek. The world grew suddenly quiet around me, and there was only my hand and Seth's open, caring, warm face. My fingertips stretched, moving ever closer, and I pulled back just a bit for a second, unsure whether or not I wanted to make myself vulnerable again by touching him. His dark eyes looked up at me, bright and filled with little stars. My hesitation was clear to him, but also my need for silence, for quiet, for focus. I knew that on a personal level, though I had never spoken a single word to him, Seth was slowly beginning to 'get' me, understand me. He was completely still, completely quiet, and completely focused on me, despite the nervous, anxious, hot, bubbling energy I could feel just below the surface. He held himself in complete restraint, hardly daring to breathe as my fingers inched closer and closer to him.

One of my hands was pressed into the crunchy grass while the other was just millimeters away from Seth's tan cheek. If I merely twitched my fingers, we would be touching for the first time in ten days.

My face was close enough that our breath had begun to mingle between us. Seth's dark eyes were widening with every breath I took, every millimeter I gained closer to him. I could taste the woodsy scent of him, lingering around his still frame, and the wolf just inside of the boy. The wildness, the adrenaline, poured through me as I realized that I was almost touching a boy/man/animal. He was other, different from me, but beautiful all the same. He had a beast lurking just beneath his pretty exterior, beckoning me closer.

Finally, my fingers, aching and tired of playing my mind's game, brushed against Seth's soft cheek.

I was hit with a blast of adrenaline, the wolf breathing down my neck, filling my body with the same energy that flowed through Seth. My own essence, my own soul, reared up, filling Seth with my magic, pulsing through him as though it, not me, were the one in control. Sparks flew behind my eyelids as I shut them in surprise, my breath coming quicker with the magic flowing between us. Without fully realizing what I was doing, my left hand, the one balancing me by holding onto the ground, twisted my fingers into the dark soil and took root there. Magic that mingled in my veins, Seth's wolf magic and my own soul's magic, pulsed into the earth after searching for an outlet. The ground beneath us began pulsing, changing, turning. Seth's eyes opened as mine did, feeling that something around us was shifting. My eyes held his, preventing him from looking away, and his taut muscles relaxed beneath my stare.

When my magic, satisfied from its inspection of Seth, returned to me, I was able to pull my fingertips away from him. As I did so, my eyes dropped down to look at the ground. My eyes found the thick, soft green grass that grew wild around us amusing, and my lips stretched into a smile that I hadn't felt in months. Seth gasped, I looked up, and he was staring at my mouth as though it was foreign to him. Then, I looked away, and he looked around us as well.

"Oh my God," he breathed, taking in the lush green lawn. His wide eyes looked at me, and I felt his gaze and looked back at him. He pointed at the grass. "Did…did you do that?" he asked. My smile turned into a smirk, and I felt my lips curling deviously as I inched closer to him, scraping my knees through the new grass, and used my index finger to lightly tap his shirt-covered chest. He gaped. "_We_ did that?" My smirk intensified; the look on his face was priceless. Seth's eyes were round with shock and surprise.

My left hand, still rooted in the earth, untwisted carefully from the dirt and returned to the surface. I examined my hand, now brown, before my eyes carefully looked up to Seth.

He was smiling at me like I had not only made his day, but his entire week. He didn't say anything, but got to his feet and offered me his hand to help me to my feet. After what had just happened it seemed foolish to refuse his touch, but I was already timid again and pulling back into myself. I pushed myself up and walked over to the house, where a gaping Renesmee, Jacob, Leah and Embry stood on the porch, their mouths open in shock.

I went inside, ignoring them as I did so, and washed my hand in the bathroom sink. When I returned, they were still outside, gaping at the lawn while Seth just stood in the middle, exactly where I had left him.

I felt the eyes as soon as I stepped outside. I scanned the trees carefully, knowing that my eyes would miss what didn't want to be seen if I wasn't careful. My eyes roved over the dark leaves on the trees before settling on a large black crow that perched halfway up a thick, tall tree. I stepped off of the porch, Seth turned to look at me, and my eyes locked with his.

I wasn't sure if it was the experience we just had or if he had simply become accustomed to my emotions over the week and half we had been around each other, but Seth was at my side immediately, scanning the forest for threats. When he found nothing out of the ordinary, he looked down at me, unsure of what had me frightened. I pointed a tentative finger upwards, directly at the dark crow.

"It's just a bird," he smiled at me with a sigh of relief. I felt my forehead crease in irritation. He didn't understand my fear. I spun on my heel and stalked towards the tree, determined. "Sera!" Seth called, confused. I ignored him.

At the foot of the huge tree, I looked up directly to lock eyes with the crow. Its black, beady eyed gaze looked down at me, drinking in all of my movements and features. I held my arm out, offering a nice place to land. The bird seemed to mock me with a fierce caw.

I continued to watch the crow, locking my eyes with its own for a long, tense moment, waiting for the control and obedience. When I felt the crow give, it swooped down to gracefully land on my outstretched arm. Claws dug lightly into my sweater and consequently, my skin. I was mindful of the heavy bird as I walked carefully back over to a shocked Renesmee and stunned Jacob. They watched me sit down on the porch steps, lift my arm slightly so that the bird moved cautiously up to my shoulder, and sat, waiting, for Paul to arrive.

After what seemed like hours, Renesmee blinked rapidly and stood in front of me. She crouched down to my level and gazed at me for a long time.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked me, recognizing the patient look on my face. I looked at her, tilted my head, and glanced up at the sun. Understanding flashed in her eyes. "He's usually here right before sunset," she reminded me tentatively. "Not any earlier." My eyes flashed to Jacob, standing beside her, and then back to her. She sighed as she stood up. "I guess he would call." She turned to Jacob and sighed. "Sera's ready for Paul to pick her up," she explained. Jacob looked at me.

"Are you sure you're ready to go?" he asked me. I just watched him for a long time, and he shook his head with a very small smile. "Of course," he said softly. He pulled off his t-shirt and handed it to Renesmee and then jogged over to the tree line. I felt the distinct shimmer of magic as he shifted, and then a distant howl five minutes later.

Within the hour, Jacob returned with Paul in tow. Leah and Embry had shifted to run a few patrols while Seth waited with Renesmee on the lawn, both watching me with hawk-like eyes as I stared straight ahead, unmoving, with the large black bird resting on my shoulder. The bird, like my focus, was calm and restrained. He did not move, he did not startle, he sat on my shoulder and stared with me straight ahead into the trees.

Paul stepped through the trees a few paces after Jacob, tugging on a shirt as he walked over. When he saw the giant black bird on my shoulder, he stopped in his tracks. I turned my gaze to him, and he slowly began to walk forward. When he was two feet from me, I held out my hand to him. He took it tentatively, and felt my mind snap against his like a rubber band-sharp, quick, and with a slight sting.

_Kill it_.

Paul's face was a mixture of astonishment and confusion. He looked from me to the bird and back to me. I forced my head to bob just once, but that was all the confirmation he needed.

Paul, clad in a pair of navy jersey shorts and a pullover white shirt, reached over to me and snatched the bird off my shoulder. It began to caw and beat its wings, but Paul held it steady and in one smooth motion, he was able to snap its neck.

The confusion around was palpable as Seth, Renesmee and Jacob inched closer. Paul looked at the dead bird in his hands, hesitating. I took it tenderly from him, went out to the tree line, and dug up at the foot of the tree it had been watching me from. When I had a hole three feet deep, I dropped the crow gently inside and then covered it with dirt. My hand hovered over the small mound, and warmth shot from my heart and into my fingertips. Grass sprouted over the little grave, covering it perfectly. I brushed my hands off and went back to Paul's side.

Paul looked down at me, not letting his confusion over the mess of the crow stop him from caring for me. He examined my tired, drawn face critically before he wrapped me in his arms.

"You're ready to go home," he decided simply. I didn't even have to confirm it; Paul understood. "I don't have my car. Can you hold on if I run?" he asked. I looked up at him, his face was scrutinizing mine. I felt a small grin coming on at the thought of riding a horse-sized wolf at super-speed. Paul grinned at my smile and shook his head as he crossed to the trees, taking off his shirt as he went. Seconds later, a shimmer of magic wrought the air and Paul stepped out as an enormous, silver wolf. I stepped towards him eagerly to pet his shiny coat. I felt hands at my waist, and I was suddenly being lifted into the air and settled on top of Paul. My thighs immediately clenched around him and my hands sought out huge tufts of his fur.

I looked down at Seth, and he smiled at me with a tinge of sadness in his eyes.

"Be safe," he told me. I felt my lips quirk in a small smile, and Paul's giant wolf head turned to look at Seth for a brief moment before he darted into the trees.


End file.
